Franklin's Conflicted Nonconformity: The Effects of Social Prejudice Batrishia Rakhim College

Benjamin Franklin, America’s proud representative of a self-made man, was truly of a character considered a genius and ahead of his time. His autobiography consists of an array of themes that influence and highlight American culture and identity. While Franklin is most noted for being an individualist, as well as a man of esteemed values and remarkable discipline, Franklin’s autobiography showcases other aspects of his personality, which he describes in accordance to his life story. These aspects make up the various themes in The Autobiography: religion, industriousness, and self-improvement are only to name a few. One of the themes in The Autobiography is social prejudice, where social norms and expectations affect Franklin’s life one way or another. It is discerned in the way the society of his time reacted or behaved towards Franklin for different reasons.

One of the earliest evidence of social prejudice stated in The Autobiography is when Franklin was sixteen and had decided to start a “Vegetable Diet”. This, however, “occasioned an Inconveniency” and he was “frequently chid” for this “singularity”. At the time vegetarianism was not so common, and people around him clearly did not welcome this “singularity”, as it is normal...